Wholesaling

I've never had a problem with wholesaling merchandise. 

Retailing is much harder...but I have/will cover that in other blog posts.

I LOVE a quick sale! 

The item/lot is gone, you just forget it and go buy more stuff. You have cash in your pocket, and if you have bought it right, you paid for your time and hopefully done even better than that.  
 
Remember all the work that goes into retailing items. Leave the cleaning, researching, handling, shipping, packaging, storing, preserving, restoring, marketing etc, etc, etc, to the buyer....who is likely also a steady reseller.

 Photo: Gerry Frost of Crazy Horse Antiques (Calgary, Alberta) and 

the Author, with part of a bulk purchase "The Driftin' Cowboy" made. 

 If Gerry happens to look familiar, you may have seen him buying and 

selling at various western Canadian antiques shows over the years,

 and most recently he has appeared on "Canadian Pickers"

(aka "Cash Cowboys" in the US and other markets) doing appraisals,  

and seen attending some of  sales put on by the two TV pickers that we in the

 business tend to refer to as "The Boys" (aka Scott Cozens & Sheldon Smithens)

Other resellers can be far better customers than the general public and/or collectors.  Selling to other pickers, dealers, second hand shop owners, etc creates steady and ready customers...and, just as importantly, are not so heavily influenced by such lines of thought as:

"I already have one of those in my collection."

"I only want one, not all 10."

"I just need that one to complete my set, not the whole set."



"I just want the 3 best condition ones, not those 20 others."


If you have been reselling anywhere, you know very well that this list can go on and on and on and on.

I also try not to wholesale to the general public, unless they actually are resellers themselves, and are willing to buy in bulk. They could become your future steady customers.   

 I do keep my "retail" prices pretty reasonable, but bulk buyers certainly get even a far better deal from me than Joe or Jane Schmo buyers. "Bulk" means different things to different people. I regularly encounter J. Q. Public that seems to think "bulk" means that their buying 5 items, under-priced at $6 each, means I should be readily giving them a 70% discount...and absorb the taxes.

There are other used goods/surplus goods/antiques/collectibles resellers who don't subscribe to the same philosophy as I do,  but usually they have another source of income, thus do not need to turn over inventory to pay the bills.....or they are newbies, and when they stay dedicated to that mantra of "retail only, minimal discounts, no wholesaling" they tend to not be in this sort of resale business long term.


Hang in there when it comes to those sorts.... 

Ten, five, two or even just a year from now, you may end up buying all their inventory, fixtures, supplies, etc; for pennies on the dollar, at some storage locker auction!

If you are really lucky, and keep reading this blog, maybe even buying my book(s) (when they get done!), you may well end up PAID to haul away the inventory you were wanting to buy!

Happy Picking, Folks!



 

So, Getting To The Point....

Well, seems I missed the main reason why I haven't blogged much...or, rather, a better detailed explanation.

Summer on the Canadian Prairies basically runs JUNE - SEPT.  So, I pack as much picking, building, sorting, scouting, renovations, auto repair, etc, etc, etc as I can into those months. June/July/August also tend to have some days with extreme heat, so some outdoor activities get nixed/post-phoned on those days.

Pickers living in climates where there is less of an extreme difference in temperatures and less extreme weather changes in general, tend to be able to get more (outside) types of work done in a year than us Canadian Prairie pickers can.  The temperatures here differ as much as 80 or 90 degrees centigrade from season to season. Winter temperatures may be only in the -20C (-4F) in the winter, in general, but with wind chills, snowstorms, etc, the weather can get much colder, and even dangerous, at times.  I have picked in such extremely cold temps & conditions, but am now more careful (and far more aware of my mortality!)  than I used to be. I'm sure I will relate some of these trips in my blog and/or in my book(s).....which I plan to work heavily on this winter.

Plus, pickers who live in the mid-states (IE: Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz of "American Pickers" fame) are within an "easy" drive to areas with warmer temperatures than their home base.

Also, some pickers have entered into, the picking profession with substantial cash available to them.  Not always a good scenario for a newbie, as you can get in trouble very fast if you are not careful.


Some of these scenarios can (and do!) include (in no particular order):

- Having savings from another line of work/previous career (maybe a buyout? Stock options when you left the firm?)
- Having investments, stocks, bonds, etc that have substantial dividends
- Large inheritance of various kinds (anything that can be turned into cash...and/or cash itself!)
- Lottery jackpot winnings (yep, I have met a family who started wheeling, dealing and picking that way.)
- Family money...old or new, it all spends the same!
- Being backed by a wealthy "silent partner"
- Having had one fantastic or several good "scores" that made them big money
- Many years of working hard, as professional pickers do, combined with being lucky enough to not have had any major life calamities (personal/family health issues, divorce/relationship issues, natural disasters, unnatural disasters, etc, etc, etc)  that drained their financial reserves.

And I am sure there are scenarios I have missed, and ones I likely could never have imagined.... !

Hmmmm...now where was I?

AH, yes.....SO, the "Cole's Notes" version of this blog? 

Here it is:

 I tend to be outside whenever the weather is good....which means far less blogging...as you noticed.

Long Time No Blog - "Why" you ask?

Sorry for the LONG wait in between blog postings.  This has been due to a number of things, and those of you following on "Hardcore Pickers" and/or are a Facebook friend you will realize why.

I've been busy PICKING...and, well, had a hospital stay for a week, a week recovery, then right away screwed up my left elbow/arm, had it in a sling for a week, etc, etc...

Yeah, I can hear the tiny violins playing...! 

No sympathy required, anyway.  Life happens.

 Problem is, as a self employed picker/dealer, my income tends to drop dramatically when I am "laid up."

You see, as someone who has been basically self employed since I was 20, there is no  real safety net....like "paid holidays", "sick leave," banked time", etc, etc.

I get sick, can't work, my income drops dramatically...sometimes all the way down to $0.00 a day.

If you are a picker, you want to remain healthy.  I'm getting older, being in my early 40s now...

(YIKES! Where has the time gone???)....

 ....and now I am finding I don't recover from illness or injuries as fast as when I was in my 20s, or even as fast as when I was in my 30s.

Pickers tend to end up with bad backs, clicking joints, many scars, etc; all from our day to day activities. You just HAVE to lift that old oak high-boy  into the truck by yourself, because the person you bought it from is unable to help due to their health/age/weather/etc.  Add to your troubles that you are barely breathing after taking an hour to manage to get it up the 65 degree incline of the stairs from the insanely dusty basement.

Just more mud in the lungs to hack up on the way home. Between each hack, snort, grimace, you try to remember what drawer at home the pain killers/muscle relaxants are...and if your back starts to complain before the 2 day drive home is done, will there be a small town drug store open tomorrow......on a Sunday?

Injuries, pain, and all the numerous things involved with those 2 things (and there are LOTS of things involved with those two innocuous words)  are part and parcel of this lifestyle. 

So, if you have a 9 to 5 job that includes a health plan, paid sick leave, dental care, etc, etc, etc, you might just want to stick to it and just do a little picking as a hobby. Making it your life's work is not as easy as shows on "Reality TV" makes it seem.

Pickin' for a living ain't easy.  (yes, yes, yes, I can hear the "whooshing" of English teachers vigorously waggling  pointer fingers...I know that "ain't" is a controversial "word" , but I was just going for a bit of drama...)

ANY WHO, picking is darn hard work, as well as risky financially and health wise....and those last two factors are also linked to each other more than we professional pickers would like.

One Plus One Equals $$$$!

Here is a quick tip.

Watch for PARTS.

Confused?

Yes, I know that happens a fair bit when folks read my blog!

Here are some photos with captions that might explain it better:

Bought the Art Deco lamp without shade (left) a few years ago at an antiques shop for $10.

Bought the grungy, rusty bed headboard art deco lamp on the right at a garage sale recently.

The thing about these headboard reading lamps is that they are actually part of a set of 3 matching pieces. The other 2 pieces usually consisted of a pair of Art Deco bedside table lamps.

 Most people assume the shade for the headboard lamp is open on both ends, thus unusable for anything other than a headboard reading lamp. You will now know better, as it is identical to the ones used on the bedside table lamps!

I will buy these all the time, as long as the glass in intact, just to scavenge the shades. There is also a style that uses a (usually) plain tubular shade (some have a marigold iridescent finish, some are plain milk glass, or clean with a frosted finish, and may possibly with a applied or etched decoration). That shade is open on both ends, but the shade is well worth grabbing, as it is even more often used on these Art Deco table lamps. It uses a wider diameter shade holder to accommodate its greater circumference.

After a bit of soap, water and a touch of bleach, the shade was ready to go on the Art Deco lamp.

 I spiffed up the base, and VOILA, a $75+ lamp is born of a $11 expenditure.

Granted, I have had the Art Deco lamp base for a few years, but that is because I misplaced it after moving.

 I have actually learned to not purposely hang on to parts, pieces and project too long, because that will actually start costing you money. Your time and storage space is money, after all.  If antiquing/junking isn't  your business, you might be able to wait for years for that "right" part for your treasure. Few (no one!) can truly afford to constantly buy items in need of work, and then hang on to those things for extreme periods, and not end up a potential candidate for appearing on one of the Hoarder reality shows. Be mindful of buying up items in need of work, partial items, parts, pieces, etc. 

That said, though, utilizing a keen picker's eye there is $$$ to be made from those "broken", incomplete, and damaged collectibles! But, that is a posting for another day!

  Let there be light!

 Turn out the lights after you are done here, ok?

TRASH TO CASH - Upcycle Your Dogs!

Ever since I started this blog, I have been meaning to write on "upcycling"  vintage (and not-so-vintage)"junk."  I have been doing this sort of thing for YEARS.


Long, long, long before the "Picker Chicks" even existed (or even thought about doing the things they do) I was creating many things from "junk".  As early as I can remember I was creating things from "trash".  Craft and art supplies are expensive. Why go out and buy them when you can get them for free or near free?

This carries over into the world of antiques, collectibles and vintage items...and the business of selling those items.

One of the things a hardcore picker and a newbie picker have in common is:

Needing to sell that low-end merchandise....and in the process end up making some real money from it.

The newbie may have bought the items in error, and needs to re-coup some of their investment. The hardcore vet likely has accumulated the items as parts of bulk purchases, auction box lots, house clean-up contents, etc, etc, etc.

Hardcore vets, like myself, like to maximize our money. Combine that with the fact that this sort of low end, common stuff is impossible to sell to bulk to our regular dealer and decorator customers.  Plus, we are not afraid of doing work.

You CAN make lemonade out of those boxes and boxes (and boxes, etc....) of lemons.

 All you need is IMAGINATION...and a little hands-on effort.   "Upcycling" is a recent term, but antiques dealers have been doing it for YEARS. Human kind has been doing it for centuries, actually.

The concept is darn simple....taking low and/or "no value" junk and creating something of value by reworking it and/or combining it with other low/no-value items.

Here is a simple thing, that takes items with low and no value, all items you have lying around, or ready to go to the trash, recycling or thrift store, and makes something you can sell at a flea market, craft sale, and even in your antiques store.

Grab that box of round cookie tins you have been hesitating putting in the recycle bin. Dig in the boxes of old hardware you have in the back rooms, the ones you bought at the auction so you could get the antique door knobs and Eastlake drawer pulls from...oh, and snag that busted 1980s table lamp you scavenged a socket from...you can use some of the parts from it, too.

You can create an item that you can retail for $15 - $45...just from some of these tins, some short lengths of copper, brass, or chrome tubing, (or even rusty pipe!), maybe an old lamp part or 2 some washers,   and some elbow grease!

Below you will find a link to the article describing how to do it. With a little imagination and your own pile of "junk", you can now create some salable inventory from that trash you have been hoarding....!

----- Click here to go to what I call the Vintage Tin Tree Storage/Organizer article -----

After you sell a bunch of these creations, you can get back to pickin'!

HARDCORE PICKERS - Point #15 EXAPANDED!

Ok, point #15 in my last post was that:  Our clothing is more than likely mostly second hand, or in the least, bought at a discount type of outlet for drastically lower than retail prices. 

Well, here is the long winded explanation:

 Why second hand and/or discount outlet sourced? It is partly because we are, frankly, a thrifty bunch. Plus, our time is limited and our work days are long, thus we may well buy some of our wardrobe at the assorted thrift shops, garage sales, yard sales, rummage sales (etc) that make up parts of some of our picking day to day travels.

 Plus, frankly, we really get annoyed with all that new, boring, cheaply made crap in shopping malls. If we want or need to buy cheap crap why pay more than a couple bucks?

 Also, we tend to destroy our clothing while on many of our picking adventures.

Now, you really don't want to spill oil, smear rancid lard, 70 year old grease with encased insect carcasses, and assorted other substances on a designer T-shirt...that is, if you actually paid more than a $1 for it....I have ripped, torn, stained and shredded more Tommy Hilfiger brand shirts than I can count. Not one cost me more than $2.  I realize they are far from a super high end designer brand, but they are not exactly low end, Dollar Store type quality T-shirts, either.


 We also simply do not tend to wear high end, collectible, nor expensive vintage clothing on picks.

 That is correct, when we knock on your door, you will not open it to see us in some vintage Armani suit, nor will be wearing a valuable, historic, vintage hand painted pin-up emblazoned, horsehide leather, WW2 pilot's jacket worth $2000.

You'll be lucky if see us in an unstained denim work jacket. But you can bet the wear on it is actually from real work, and the stains legitimately obtained during said work.

We don't pay 3 figure sums for "designer" blue jeans that have been "given character" in a factory's production line by workers armed with sandpaper, razor blades, bleach while in the background the din of washers and dryers loaded with jeans and chunks of limestone bang about, quickly achieving a "fade" and "wear" effect.

  OUR jeans are made that way from our work.  They are torn, sliced and shredded by shards of tin, rusty steel, crooked nails. They are smeared and streaked by leaning and brushing against powdery house paint; 90 years oxidized in the sun on a lonely farmhouse's clapboards.

Our jeans sport spots and elliptical dots of varying shades of grey/black, painted with oily residue of unknown origins, possibly acquired from shifting & carrying pails. buckets, tins, crates and other assorted containers languishing for years in maintenance rooms of old warehouses and farm sheds.

They are whitened in polka-dot fashion by the hydrogen peroxide that we had splashed on them when our hand jerked a bit, and gritted teeth together,as a knee jerk reaction to the bubbling disinfectant's action in the fresh and thankfully-not-as-deep-as-we-initially-thought slice in our flesh from that damn, fly-speck covered, jagged piece of glass remaining in the dry rotted window pane.

 Our pants may also be white streaked, and rotted through in spots, by diluted battery acid, bleach, and other substances spilled from unstable containers, many of which we tried to carefully move to gain access to other items on the shelves of the musty basement storage room.  Other containers no longer had any notation of their hazardous nature, having likely given up any paper or written note of their contents to the team of time, humidity & gravity.

So, Fashion TV, when will you feature REAL picker clothing on YOUR runways?

HARDCORE PICKERS Defined

Some of you may be aware of our HARDCORE PICKERS page on Facebook.

I have been asked a few times by non-antiques/junkers, as well as by some of my own peers as to what the definition of a Hardcore Picker really is.

SO, in preparation for a submission to Wikipedia (joking about Wikipedia...for now!) I will attempt to describe what I mean by the term.

I jotted down a bunch of one line aspects of what a Hardcore Picker is.....while driving to a show in Regina.  Saskatchewan is flat...well, not entirely, but on that route it is mighty flat. Plus, The Saskatchewan portion of the Trans Canada Highway on the route from our place to Regina is twinned...so, no oncoming traffic to worry about...except for maybe the odd blind Baba driving some old grain truck who hasn't been behind the road since 1952....

(What is a Baba, you ask? Well, in my neck of the woods, it has always meant a grandmotherly sort of woman...imagine a kerchiefed, wrinkled, elderly lady...of eastern European descent, popularly Ukrainian, Polish, etc. Apparently Wikipedia has never heard of that definition...!)

Now back to the definition at hand....

So, this is a rough draft of sorts...and a short list.

HEY, I heard that...! Yes, I know I am, um, well, I guess you could say "long winded".... and rarely can my writings be defined as "short".

Not to mention "sweet" ..well, ok, sometimes they are bitter....I AM a antiques dealer after all...we like to bitch a bit!

Here we go...and, by the way, these are not in any particular order, other than how I have them scrawled in barely legible form on that antique and obsolete stuff called "paper"...you know, they stuff they used in BOOKS?  And I mean REAL books...not "E-Books"....

Ahem...and off we go...Yes, REALLY!

(1) We blend among the every person...and sometimes we really stand out amongst them, too.

(2) We are not born into wealth, nor where we wealthy when we started picking for a living.  For the few among us who are wealthy, they did not start out that way.  Plus, it is highly likely that every penny that wealth is built upon has been hard earned.

(3) Our supper is likely to be along the lines of a sandwich of bologna, with a side of beans and a beer as the beverage. No lobster for us...except maybe for our east coast brethren, who buy their lobster direct from the fishermen at a "on the dock" price.  It will be a fisherman who, with a calloused, salt spray soaked hand will shake the picker's own calloused, scarred, dirt etched hand after the transaction is finalized.

(4) Our vehicles are at least 5 years old...if not older!

(5) Our vehicles are rarely clean, neat and organized....inside or out.

(6) We are usually the last owner of the vehicle...not counting the auto wrecker or scrap yard.

(7)  The males in our group  are not "pretty boys." We may well be handsome, attractive, etc, in our own ways, though. We blend well when we need to. Adapting, blending in, relating, making most people comfortable with us is what we have all developed a talent for.

(8) The picker chicks among us are not cobweb fearing, "AHMIGAWD, it's a mouse!!!" squeallin' "girly girls". They can be and are sexy, cute, attractive, hot, smokin', etc. Sure, they can act and seem like girly-girls sometimes, after all, they have learned to be chameleons, also!

(9) We pick to pay the rent or the mortgage, to pay the bills. We may collect some things, but it is more of a rainy day savings account, health plan, or retirement plan than a collection that our spouse, children and/or relatives will be stuck disposing of when we go to where ever you think a picker goes when he/she dies.

(10) We have record of our picks tattooed on and in our bodies. These tattoos are in the form of bruises, scars, aches, pains, and backs stretched past the limit of reason.  They also manifest themselves in the form of stories we tell, describing our adventures, scares, close-calls, near-misses, complete misses, and life experiences.

(11) We can tell you hours and hours worth of true stories of our experiences that will make you laugh out loud, cringe in visualized  pain, gasp in amazement, and shake your head in disbelief.

(12) Our minds consist of characteristics such as being keen, imaginative, creative, open, curious, and we harbor a thick, strong streak of tenacity.


(13) We are the pickers that other sorts of amateur pickers, hobbyist pickers and pseudo-pickers strive to emulate, and rarely are able to truly imitate. You need to go only as far as watching some of the "picking" based "reality" shows for proof. I won't name names.

(14)  We are the pickers that dealers and other pickers hover around, sometimes crowd and jostle for position around during set-up times at antique shows, flea markets, swap meets. All while, bleary eyed, coffee at hand, hacking up mud balls from attic dust inhaled the day previous, we unpack our dusty, freshly found treasures.

(15) Fashionista's, pay attention.....!  Our clothing is more than likely mostly second hand, or in the least, bought at a discount type of outlet for drastically lower than retail prices. Why? See my next blog for a detailed, and yes, a long winded, explanation.


(16) Some of us do actually retain part time or even full time jobs to make ends meet, pay the bills, help save for our kid's university education. Then we work 10 times as hard after our jobs end for the day/week, picking to keep a grip on our hard fought for rung on the ladder of life.

(17) We are truly among the adventurers of today.

(18) We see treasure where others see only trash.

(19) We see potential in places that others pass.

(20) Our early backgrounds vary. We are former truckers, professors, teachers, laborers, clerks, secretaries, miners, postal workers,  students, artists, fishermen, bar tenders, waters, waitresses, and nearly any occupation you can imagine, as well as some you can not.... 

But, we are ALL:

HARDCORE PICKERS.

Canada's Highway is #1! - Article for The Country Register

The Dust And Dirt Column - As published in the April 2012 edition of the Country Register (Saskatchewan-Manitoba edition)

Canada’s Highway is #1!

As a traveler, the Trans Canada Highway is the route most will likely take as part of their journey.  Number 1, as area residents call it, is an integral part of any place I wish to drive, save for my own property. Well, there is the occasional summertime jaunt next door to neighboring campground’s convenience store, for that ever important ice cream cone!

This is an abbreviated rundown of stops potentially of interest to junkers, antiquers, history buffs, and others thus inclined, while travelling the eastern Saskatchewan/western Manitoba section of #1 from Whitewood, SK to Oak Lake, MB. Use it as a basic guide, and budget time for unplanned stops that make trips memorable! Small towns are full of them when you get looking and asking around!

Let's start at Whitewood, Saskatchewan, home of OLD GEO'S! This museum is entirely owned and operated by George Chopping himself!  George is an entertaining character,  and highly knowledgeable in many areas. I will leave your potential experience at this roadside attraction an intriguing mystery.  Look for Ol’George, usually sporting a beard, and long grey hair under a cowboy hat, to start your adventure!
If you have daylight left after spending the day wandering around Ol’ Geo’s, Moosomin is the next major town on the road. I have not had a chance time to check out their local sites in the last few years.  Make it a stop of discovery, and find its secrets on your own!

Eventually you will arrive at the village of Elkhorn, Manitoba.  Their Antique Auto Museum is a car buff’s drool-fest, featuring many classic, and early, ultra-rare vehicles.  Included under the same roof are other historical artifacts & oddities, including a two headed calf! As well, slip into  Elkhorn and check out "Past & Present Antiques & Gifts." Just the place for shoppers to get their fix!

Twenty minutes east, Virden holds sites including a restored railway station, now housing an art gallery & gift shop. Within a stone’s throw is a circa 1900 underground pedestrian tunnel! Make certain to see the Virden Pioneer Home Museum, plus arrange a tour of the historic Aud Theatre. Explore the town by car to discover many well preserved and restored field stone buildings, among other eye pleasing sights.  Treasure hunters/shoppers will want to stop at "Jam's Used Furniture" on Nelson Street. They carry an ever changing inventory of used furniture, some antique furniture, and a large section of mostly consigned antiques, collectibles and treasures of all sorts. Just across the street is the “Nearly New,” where you may find some good buys. Then, zip less than a block from there to Echo Books on 7^th Ave. Their inventory includes books (obviously!), vintage items, locally sourced crystals/stone, plus other oddities!

A ten minute drive east brings you to the Buzzing Bee Bed & Breakfast, as well as Fedora Antiques & Collectibles. Yes, our place! We hope to get the store (and a country flea market) open in early summer!
 I’ll conclude the list here, as I have tons of work to do before you arrive! As mentioned, this is an abbreviated  list, so my apologies to anyone along the route feeling left out. Know of a stop that fits a junker’s list of interests? Drop me a line!  Note that the editors do restrict my articles' lengths to only a small portion of a page...despite my ability to fill the entire paper!
Happy hunting, folks!

Takin' Care of Business - The Song of My Life!

Yes, I know, it has been awhile.... "long time no blog."

Been busy...well, MORE busy than in the winter, anyway.  Even as I write this, I really should be doing some paperwork I have been neglecting...and with that in mind, I will be keeping this short....

Yes, I know you have heard that from me before....and I still manage to write pages and pages...well, not today....trying to keep my word today.

Anyway, the title of today's post is connected to its contents in 2 ways.  As a "Hardcore Picker", I am working every day, every way. Even my "off time" is usually connected to "the business"..or I will connect it.

Last week, I had to attend a family member's funeral, about 2 hours from home. While driving to my parents through the town looking for the church, I spotted a sign nailed to someone's garden shed.

After the funeral, I took the same route back to the highway. I  stopped on the road where I noticed it,  so I could take a better look, and sure  enough, it turned out to be a 1930s Orange Crush sign.  Considering the emotionally draining nature of the day, I made a mental note of it, and I will go back in a week or two to see I can buy it, and follow up some other leads in that area.

My eyes never stop working. Sometimes they slow down, get tired, but if they are open, they notice things at times that I am not actively picking or scouting.

Ever see someone in a suit picking over the merchandise at a garage sale?

 En route to a wedding?

 Their OWN wedding?

 That is likely why my wife decided we should have a small private ceremony at home...She knows antiques dealers all too well.

Anyway, I promised to keep this short...and it ends here...pretty much.  However, you may want to bring up YouTube and put on Takin' Care Of Business by the iconic, Western Canadian rockers, BTO.

And (with apologies to Randy Bachman ,Fred Turner, and the other BTO members)......

NOW you can sing along, PICKER STYLE, using the lyrics below....(this is technically still a work in progress, BTW!)

----- INSERT IMAGINED DRUM ROLL HERE ------

    I present you with a tune I have titled:


Pickin' For A Livin'
 

I get up in mornin’

At the alarm clock’s warning.

Out drivin’ dirt roads rarely travelled

There’s an old farm up ahead

 I slow the van down

turn and drive up the rutted lane

And my heart skips a beat

Maybe I can pay my bill for heat

Cause I see tons o’ junk around the sheds

And then I see the ol’ boy

He says his name is Elroy

But just call him plain Roy

He used to go…

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.

Come on!

He showed me ‘round the yard and sheds,

Then showed me piles of cast iron beds

rusty shades of red, brown and yellow

Asked him "How Much?" And he replied

10 bucks a piece takes ‘em all, Clyde

Yeah, seems cheap, but he knew what he was doin’

He had made the huge piles

Over quite a long while,

Bought ‘em all at under scrap price, no foolin’

You see the ol’ boy was smart

He was a hard workin' ol’ fart

Told me: “I loved dealin’ in ol’ junk

But it is time to sell it all

I turned 90 late this fall

And now along comes you, this young punk

Who says he’s…

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.

He’s just like me

Spent his life

Pickin’ for a livin’, every day

Pickin’ for a livin’, every way

Oh yeah, I picked all this old stuff, it’s all fine

Pickin’ for a livin’, yeah all this stuff is mine.